Team USA World University Games

The World University Games are coming up this summer. Two years ago Team USA finished in 5th place despite the fact that they only lost one game the whole tournament. The 2011 squad had 5 players who were selected in the 2012 Draft (Draymond Green, John Jenkins, Darius Miller, Orlando Johnson and Marcus Denmon. That squad only invited players who were from ages 20-23 so I'm assuming they will do the same and let all the players born in 1994 try out for the U19 Team.

Four guys with International Competition experience who I think should be invited for sure are Doug McDermott, James McAdoo, Johnny O'Bryant and Quinn Cook. Everybody knows about Doug McDermott and he was a part of the 2011 U19 Squad that defeated Jonas Valanciunus, the MVP of that tournament. Johnny O'Bryant from LSU and Quinn Cook from Duke started for both the 2009 U16 and the 2010 U17 teams that went undefeated. One guy who I think would be perfect for this even though he didn't reach up his expectations is James McAdoo. He was named first team of the 2010 U17 Tournament along with Bradley Beal. Somebody with that type of international experience should for sure e invited.

It appears to be random how they select who gets invited to try out for the WUG roster for who knows what reason. Two years ago they seemed to invite a lot of older players born in 88 and 89 (which would be like 90 and 91 today) who were either 5th year seniors to be or were old for their classes. Some potential candidates if they want to do that are Russ Smith, Sean Kilpatrick, Mike Moser, CJ Wilcox, Marshall Henderson and Deonte Burton.

It is obviously very questionable who will get invited and they don't invite players based on their draft status and how good they necessarily were. If I were one of the executives for USA Basketball, this would be who I'd invite.

I know that was a very random list of players and those were not the 20 best players returning to college but from how Team USA has invited their WUG players in the past, those seen like the kind of players that they would invite.

It is not the question who gets invited but who will accept the invitation. It is a fact that most of the college coaches vehemently argue against leaving campus in the summer. Speaking of the U19 teams 2009 and 2011, more than 40 players rejected their invitation to the trials. I will emphasize how big of an event the U 16 trials 20 days from now will be. This has a chance to be a historic happening with a plethora of future greats. The list with invitees should come out tomorrow or Tuesday and boy we should talk then about a two superb classes 2015 and 2016.